Advice for Projector Positioning

[Ashmanator]

Hi Guys,

I am building a budget simulator set up to enable me to practice/ help my daughter practice after school when she can't get to the range. Its a budget set up, initially as I don't know whether it will be used a lot or not. My daughter is 8 years old.

I have recently built my cage and am just waiting for the impact screen to arrive. My cage is 5 meters wide, 3 meters high and 4 meters deep. So screen is 16.4 ft wide and 9.8 ft high.

I am thinking I will mount the short throw projector on the ceiling (8.5 ft) 2.6 meters from the screen. So the strike mat/ point will be behind the projector (13 Ft) 4 meters, so no shadows.

I am currently Considering these projectors:
Optoma W316ST
Vivetek DW882St.

I have attached pictures of the cage and throw calculations.

Question;
Will the projector be safe at 2.5 from the screen when the strike mat is 4 meters from the screen?
Any other recommendations for projectors?
Any other comments/ thoughts/ advice?

Thanks for any feedback.
Mark

[andygg1986]

I’m not familiar with either of those projectors but a couple of other things to note. Just because the projector calculator says the projector is at a certain height relative to the bottom of the screen doesn’t mean you absolutely must mount it there. Pretty much all projectors have keystone correction which means you can compensate for tilting the projector. I would mount the projector all the way up at the ceiling and use the correction to get the sides of the image perfectly vertical. The slightly degraded image would be more than offset by having the projector farther out of the way. Also, it’s hard to tell from the photos but make sure that you have a decent gap between the back wall of the enclosure and the wall of your house. If it is too close balls will come bouncing back at you.

[Ashmanator]

Thanks andygg1986. I left 12 inches behind the enclosure and the house wall. There will also be a impact screen, so hopefully that should prevent the ball ever hitting the wall. I figured I could use the keystone correction to mount it on the roof of the enclosure, just couldn't work out how to adjust that on the projector calculator.